Except that Buffy's most meaningful interactions throughout that season are with Spike. I could go through a breakdown of the episodes and say that scene here, this scene there. Buffy's mission for that season besides protecting the potentials was putting her faith in Spike and helping him fight the First's influence. Buffy's connection to Spike and his struggles during that season got equal or more attention than Willow or Xander or Dawn.
It's rather telling that in an episode where Willow is being magically attacked by Amy and becoming Warren, Buffy is going on a mission to help save Spike from the chip's defects. And the season keeps showing how she's putting all this trust in him. Trust that the other characters question and resent her for. Nearly every main character got an episode that featured them center stage - Willow in Same Time, Same Place and TKIM, Dawn in Potential, Andrew in Storyteller. Yet on the whole Spike played a bigger role in more episodes throughout the season - Beneath You, Sleeper, Never Leave Me, Bring on The Night & Showtime with the being tortured and bringing forth the Turokhan, Potential (training the girls with Buffy), TKIM (his chip starts misfiring and Buffy helps him), Get it Done (gets his 'stones' back and kills the demon to rescue Buffy), LMPTM, Empty Places (the Andrew/bike mission Giles sends him on where he learns 'it's for her alone to wield'), Touched (confronting everyone who kicked out Buffy and giving her the confidence to keep fighting, giving her the strength to get the Scythe). And then his significance in Chosen is really evident.
Episodes where Spike played a significant role - Beneath You...no scratch that. I was honestly about to list them and realized that every following episode has some Spike interaction. What's important is that starting with CWDP, Buffy's focus encompasses two goals: protecting the potentials and helping Spike. Helping Spike even by giving him a new purpose in training the Potentials. Being a good guy. Showing him how to change and be counted.
Buffy and Spike didn't get paltry screentime during Season 7. I really disagree with that. Obviously Buffy is the central figure that anchors every episode of the show. For the mission, she dedicated herself to the potentials. For personal reasons, she dedicated herself to Spike. While the Potentials did take up a lot of space during Season 7, Buffy and Spike were the notable exceptions to those characters who truly lost screentime and significant arcs - Dawn and Xander especially. Dawn's arc of being trained by Buffy was jettisoned and Xander was mostly taking up space, fixing the house, unknowingly dating a demon for Valentine's day and finally the unfortunate tragedy when he lost an eye fighting Caleb.
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Date: 2009-01-13 08:23 pm (UTC)It's rather telling that in an episode where Willow is being magically attacked by Amy and becoming Warren, Buffy is going on a mission to help save Spike from the chip's defects. And the season keeps showing how she's putting all this trust in him. Trust that the other characters question and resent her for. Nearly every main character got an episode that featured them center stage - Willow in Same Time, Same Place and TKIM, Dawn in Potential, Andrew in Storyteller. Yet on the whole Spike played a bigger role in more episodes throughout the season - Beneath You, Sleeper, Never Leave Me, Bring on The Night & Showtime with the being tortured and bringing forth the Turokhan, Potential (training the girls with Buffy), TKIM (his chip starts misfiring and Buffy helps him), Get it Done (gets his 'stones' back and kills the demon to rescue Buffy), LMPTM, Empty Places (the Andrew/bike mission Giles sends him on where he learns 'it's for her alone to wield'), Touched (confronting everyone who kicked out Buffy and giving her the confidence to keep fighting, giving her the strength to get the Scythe). And then his significance in Chosen is really evident.
Episodes where Spike played a significant role - Beneath You...no scratch that. I was honestly about to list them and realized that every following episode has some Spike interaction. What's important is that starting with CWDP, Buffy's focus encompasses two goals: protecting the potentials and helping Spike. Helping Spike even by giving him a new purpose in training the Potentials. Being a good guy. Showing him how to change and be counted.
Buffy and Spike didn't get paltry screentime during Season 7. I really disagree with that. Obviously Buffy is the central figure that anchors every episode of the show. For the mission, she dedicated herself to the potentials. For personal reasons, she dedicated herself to Spike. While the Potentials did take up a lot of space during Season 7, Buffy and Spike were the notable exceptions to those characters who truly lost screentime and significant arcs - Dawn and Xander especially. Dawn's arc of being trained by Buffy was jettisoned and Xander was mostly taking up space, fixing the house, unknowingly dating a demon for Valentine's day and finally the unfortunate tragedy when he lost an eye fighting Caleb.